By the Time You Regretted Me, I had stopped loving youChapter 1
I had only gone to Celine, my fiance’s step-sister to collect a debt. That was it. Just money she owed.
But the next day, Argus, my fiance threw a thick ledger straight at me. It hit my chest and dropped to the floor like it weighed a thousand pounds.
“Pick it up,” he said, voice cold and sharp, like I was nothing more than something stuck under his shoe. “Go on. Read it carefully. Every single page.”
My hands shook as I bent down. Something felt wrong. Terribly wrong.
I opened it and my vision blurred for a second.
It was everything.
Every single thing he had ever spent on me in five years.
A custom-made gown worth fifty thousand dollars. A limited-edition supercar he said was “just a gift.” Diamond sets, private island vacations, luxury suites, chartered yachts. Even the smallest things were there… a gourmet dessert, late-night wine, flowers I thought meant something.
All written down.
Every cent counted.
Even the hotel rooms. Even the clothes he bought for me.
My fingers tightened around the pages. My chest felt tight. Was this… what I meant to him?
“I’ll be fair,” Argus said, leaning back like this bored him, slowly swirling the wine in his glass. “We split the hotel costs. I’m not unreasonable.”
Fair?
My throat felt dry.
“After deducting the fifty thousand Celine owes you,” he continued, finally looking at me, eyes sharp and cold, “you still owe me 52 million. One month. Transfer it.”
Fifty-two million.
My lips parted but no sound came out at first. “Argus… I never asked you for those things. You gave them to me, I didn’t—”
“I didn’t what?” he cut in softly, but it felt worse than shouting. “Didn’t enjoy them? Didn’t accept them?”
“That’s not what I mean, I just…” I swallowed. Why couldn’t I explain it? “I thought… it wasn’t like this.”
“Then what was it like?” His gaze locked on mine, pressing, suffocating. “Say it properly, Dahlia. Or do you not even know what you were thinking back then?”
I froze.
What was I thinking?
That he loved me?
That those things weren’t debts waiting to be collected?
A laugh broke the silence.
“Dahlia sorry, Argus really kept receipts,” someone said, amused. “Do you even know how much fifty million is?”
Another man’s voice joined in, sharper. “She doesn’t. She was just warming his bed and playing house. Thought she got lucky.”
Laughter spread across the room.
My ears rang.